Profile/Michael Viner and Deborah Raffin; Selling Books to a Generation That Won't Sit Still

By BERNARD WEINRAUB

Published: February 28, 1993

HOLLYWOOD—
ONE evening six years ago, Michael Viner, a producer, sat down to play backgammon with a longtime friend, the novelist Sidney Sheldon. The stakes were high. Mr. Sheldon promptly lost $8,000 to Mr. Viner.

Even by this town's excessive standards, the amount seemed a bit outrageous.

"I didn't want to take it -- and there was talk around the table of whether my wife would divorce me if I took it," Mr. Viner said. "But Sidney insisted I take it. Otherwise, he wouldn't talk to me again."

A compromise was reached. Instead of paying off his debt with money, Mr. Sheldon agreed to allow two of his best sellers to be made into audio tapes. Mr. Viner and his wife, Deborah Raffin, would produce the tapes.

From that curious start, with Mr. Viner and Ms. Raffin working out of their garage, the couple have turned Dove Audio Inc. into one of the nation's fastest growing and most formidable producers of books on tape.

The upstart independent company, with more than 900 works of fiction and nonfiction, now rivals the major publishers that have books-on-tape divisions. These include Simon & Schuster, Random House, Bantam Books and Harper Collins. Mr. Viner said his company's retail sales in 1993 would exceed $23 million, 25 percent more than last year.

Total retail sales of books on tape, including religious and evangelical works, are expected to reach $1 billion this year. Bookstores have called this their fastest growing ancillary market. And now books on tape are starting to appear in video stores.

Mr. Viner and Ms. Raffin run something of a mom-and-pop operation, California style.

The two often work out of their rustic clay-tiled Coldwater Canyon home, replete with the requisite tennis court and swimming pool. (They also have a home outside Stowe, Vt.) When they drive to their Beverly Hills office, they take their two Yorkshire terriers.

Ms. Raffin, who is low key and unpretentious, recruits performers and oversees production of the tapes, which are both abridged and unabridged versions of books. The books include histories, thrillers, biographies and children's stories.

Mr. Viner, enthusiasm personified, deals with the company's business side -- packaging, promotion and expansion. He has been discussing, with various Wall Street firms, investments in Dove and possibly the purchase of another company specializing in books on tape. Within the last year the company has been expanding overseas.

THE different backgrounds of Mr. Viner, 48, and Ms. Raffin, 39, clearly help their partnership. Mr. Viner, grew up in Washington, the son of Melvin Viner, who owned a laundry chain, and Jeanne Viner Bell, a former actress. He attended Harvard and Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, and then served as an advance man in Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 Presidential campaign.

The glamour bug apparently bit him then. Mr. Viner headed for Hollywood, got work as a producer's assistant at 20th Century-Fox and then went to MGM Records as a producer. At MGM, he helped produce several hits by Sammy Davis Jr., including "Candy Man" and "Mr. Bojangles."

Because of Mr. Davis's friendship with then-President Richard M. Nixon, Mr. Viner was invited to produce the entertainment for the 1972 Republican convention in Miami. He also produced the entertainment at the Kennedy Center for Mr. Nixon's second inauguration. (Mr. Viner said he is a political independent and voted for Bill Clinton in 1992.)

In 1974, he met Ms. Raffin on a blind date and in August of that year, they married.

The daughter of Trudy Marshall, an actress with 20th Century-Fox, and Philip Raffin, a meat broker and restaurateur, Ms. Raffin grew up in Los Angeles. She made her acting debut in 1973, at the age of 18, playing Liv Ullman's daughter in the movie "Forty Carats." Her movie credits also include "The Dove," for which the company is named. Among her television roles is the portrayal of Brooke Hayward in the mini-series "Haywire," based on Ms. Hayward's autobiography.

After MGM Records was sold in 1975, Mr. Viner moved into the film and television business with Ms. Raffin.

"There is a blurring," Mr. Viner said, "between work and our life outside work. We work six days, sometimes seven days, a week; 12-hour days." Their friends, including Roddy McDowell, have taped numerous books for Dove. The couple often entertain visiting authors at trendy restaurants like Morton's. And they often sprinkle the crowd with friends who are old-line Hollywood glamour, like Sidney Poitier.

Dove, which has another office in Stamford, Conn., has produced a handful of television features and has a modest book division. Mr. Viner said he and his wife own 63 percent of the company, Mr. Sheldon 25 percent and several friends the remaining stock.

As explained by Seth D. Gershel, vice president and publisher of Simon & Schuster Audio, the books-on-tape business has expanded rapidly because of the growth of car cassette players in the 1980's, aided by Americans' long hours on the road. Americans' obsession with jogging and exercise machines has also helped, because the audio books can make the minutes go faster.